A fractal is self similar at many levels.
"The epithets are decorative insofar as they are neither essential to the immediate context nor modeled especially for it. Among other things, they are extremely helpful to fill out a half-verse" --- Burkert (1992), p. 116.
I can call you "the bastard" without requiring that you are, regretfully, truly, born out of wed-lock; I just need to have a negative opinion of you.